Robert H Clark Photography Blog

Bryce Canyon Sunrise – Bryce Canyon National Park, UT

Bryce Canyon National Park, Grand Circle, Landscape, Landscape Photography, National Parks, Photography Technique, Photography Trips, Robert H Clark Photography, sunrise, Twilight Photography, Utah 2 Responses »

Oct 282012

Bryce Canyon Sunrise • Bryce Canyon National Park, Utah.

Hi everyone and welcome to todays post. I know it has been a little while since my last post but it has been a whirlwind of a fall that has included the installation of my first one-man show at the City Meat Gallery in Winchester, Virginia, a major shooting trip to Utah, and a trip to Photo Plus Expo in New York. I am just now able to slow down and start looking at some of the files from my recent shoots. Todays image was shot in Bryce CanyonNational Park in Utah and was shot at dawn just below the canyon rim along the Navajo Trail. I found this “hoodoo wall” while scouting a potential morning shot for Thor’s Hammer, one of the more iconic hoodoos in Bryce. I made a mental note of the forms but at the time did not think too much of the shots potential. It was only while checking the rising sun angles with the Photographers Ephemeris on my iPhone that I realized I could capture the rising sun through the window openings in the wall. Scouting and pre-visualizing a shot is an important part of the photographic process. This is especially true when you need to arrive very early, before the sun rises, to set up the shot. As a general rule I like to be on-site and in place at least an hour before sunrise. This gives me time to get into position and an opportunity to watch the “lights come on”. I will always be enthralled by this phenomenon. In the darkness the landscape is seemingly a place of quiet shadows. It can be an eery time as well with thoughts of things that go bump in the night. But as the earth rotates into astronomical twilight, approximately an hour before sunrise, the eastern horizon begins to glow with the promise of a new day. By the arrival of civil twilight the landscape begins to glow with reflected light bouncing from the sky and clouds. Light at this time is generally even and shadowless allowing the forms of the landscape to be revealed. It is my favorite time to shoot.

On the next morning I made a few twilight exposures of Thor’s Hammer and then raced up the trail to set up my camera on the largest window in the hoodoo. I marked the brightest point along the horizon, the point where I thought the sun would rise, and made sure it was visible through the window. I made a few test exposures for the composition and then waited for the sun to rise. It came right on time and light burst through the hoodoos window. In order to get the starburst effect I stopped the camera down to f22. The smaller aperture focuses the light and creates the star. Additionally I wanted to make sure the sun was partially blocked by a piece of the hoodoo which aids in creating the effect and helps to eliminate a lot of the potential flare. I did have a little bit of correctable flare however since I was using my Tokina 16-28 which has a pronounced front lens element. The intense color evident on the hoodoo came from reflected light off the canyon wall just behind my camera position. The RAW file was processed in LR4.2 and finished in PS5.1

Camera: Nikon D800E | Lens: Tokina 16-28mm, f2.8 at 20mm | Exposure: ISO 100 at 1/15th of a second at f22

Thanks for stopping by today.

Bob

Mar 102012

Twilight over the Sinking Ship • Grand Canyon National Park, AZ.

Hi everyone and welcome to today’s post. Just a short post today featuring a recent image from a February trip to the South of the Grand Canyon. I was there for some NPS work but got out for a little photography in between meetings and surveys. To say I had some incredible weather would be an understatement. I have been to the canyon many times but I have never had the sustained atmospheric conditions I witnessed on this trip. On successive days clouds rolled over the canyon creating dynamic and dramatic light. Clouds passed over the buttes and also dropped into below the rim to drift in and out of the formations. In the evening the clouds moved up allowing beautiful twilight shooting conditions.

This image was shot at one of my “secret”, favorite shooting locations along the South Rim. A short little off-trail scramble brings you to a series of rocky ledges that affords eastern and western views within the canyon. Looking east you can see the giant mass of Coronado Butte, and west affords incredible views of the Sinking Ship formation, aptly named as it appears to be an ocean liner sinking into the water. This image of the Sinking Ship was shot about 10 minutes into civil twilight. The clouds had begun to lift and some subtle re-lighting illuminated the foreground rocks and large buttress to the right. I used these elements to frame the vista to the Sinking Ship.

Technical Details: This image is a composite of two exposures, one for the sky and one for the foreground. The two files were processed in Lightroom and opened as layers in Photoshop. The two files were hand blended using a luminosity layer mask before completing the usual contrast and color layers I typically employ.

Thanks for stopping by today.

Bob

Sandstone Fins – Glen Canyon National Recreation Area

Arizona, Colorado Plateau, Desert, Glen Canyon, Glen Canyon National Recreation Area, Grand Circle, Landscape, Landscape Photography, National Parks, Navajo Lands, Photography Technique, Photography Trips, Sony α900, sunset, Twilight Photography 2 Responses »

May 312011

Sandstone Fins, Glen Canyon National Recreation Area. Shot with a Sony α900 and a Sony SAL 20mm lens. Image exposed at ISO 100 at f16 for 1/2 of a second.

Hi everyone and welcome to today’s post. Over the next few weeks I will be pretty busy with work related items including some travel time. To this end I may not be able to get up another post before I return towards the middle of June. I will tell you that the back end of my travels will take me once again to the Grand Canyon and up to Page for a little slot canyon photography. I will be shooting in Canyon X, Secret Canyon, and out at the Fins at Waterholes Canyon, all on the Navajo Reservation. I have wanted to shoot both of these canyons for quite some time and I am quite excited to see them. The Fins are a collection of striated stacks of sandstone similar to todays image. If I have a chance to post another image before I get away I will. But if not I will see you again in a few weeks.

Today’s image was shot at Glen Canyon National Recreation Area. On the road leading out of Page, towards the Glen Canyon Dam, there is a turn off to the right that will take you to a parking area. From there it is an easy hike in multiple directions out into the sandstone play land along the lakes edge. You do not have to travel far to find interesting sandstone formations and patterns. There are quite a lot of these sharped edged, stacked sandstone fins, that really glow in the early morning or late evening light. This image was shot in the late evening when I had just arrived in Page. I came down just after checking into the hotel just to unwind from the trip. It was an evening of beautiful light and a great way to start off another shooting adventure.

If I have the time I often like to begin a shooting trip in this manner. This was not my intended destination but it served to get my mind in the right frame and helped me to unwind and get ready for the next day. All too often we arrive with very little time to prepare and have to jump straight into our main subject. The results can be discouraging and I can think of many occasions where I have lost a days worth of shooting by simply not having my head in the right frame of mind. Learning to ease in, such as in this case, has helped me calm down and experience the light and feeling of a place. In many cases by letting go in such a way your “wind down” excursions can produce some very nice images. Afterwards a nice dinner and then checking your equipment sets a relaxed tone for the next day. Give this a try on your next trip.

I will see you again in a few weeks, and hopefully, with a lot of new images from a spectacular slot canyon.

Thanks for stopping by today.

Hozógo nasádo (Navajo): Walk in Beauty

Bob

Rio Grande Palisades – Big Bend National Park

Badlands, Big Bend, Big Bend National Park, Desert, Helicon Focus, Landscape, Landscape Photography, National Parks, Photography Composition, Photography Technique, Photography Trips, River, Singh-Ray Filters, Sony α900, Split Neutral Density Filters, Texas, Zeiss Lenses 3 Responses »

Apr 042011

Rio Grand Palisades, Big Bend National Park, Texas. Shot with a Sony α900 and a Zeiss 24-70mm lens at 55mm. Image exposed at ISO 100 at f13 for 1/20 of a second.

Hi everyone and welcome to today’s post. This is another shot from my recent trip to Big Bend National. This image was taken from the Rio Grande Overlook and is a view looking south into Mexico. This is not the classic view from this point and I resisted the urge to shoot that shot. I choose instead to move away from my group in search of other vistas. When I found this composition I was struck by the sweeping curves in the river as it flowed past the rocky palisades. From my lofty perch I could see far and away into Mexico. I find edges very interesting both compositionally and intrinsically. Here we have the edges of two countries separated only by a thin ribbon of river. So close and yet so far away. At the time it was a landscape I could only gaze upon as I was not allowed to cross the river.

There are several interesting and powerful compositional concepts found in this image. The first and most prominent is the leading line formed by the river. It is far and away the most powerful element. The rivers shape and form leads the eye into the frame and moves it deeper into the landscape. It is also the lightest element in tone and contrast and is framed on each side by the darker land forms. The eye will always be drawn to the light in a photograph and this occurs in the upper one-third of the shot.

There are also repeating shapes within the the image. The foreground rocks, the palisades at the turn of the river, the far cliffs, and even the light colored tones in the background are repeating elements in the shot that add visual interest. They also form a secondary leading line that runs diagonally in contrast to the sinuous curve of the river. The combination of these two singular lines makes for a dynamic image full of visual interest.

The image was shot in split-light. Split-light is where there is a defined edge between light and shadow. Split-light is easy to recognize but can be hard to handle with exposure. this is especially true since I shot this image in three focus brackets to combine in Helicon Focus. To this end I could not shoot exposure brackets to combine or blend. To handle the exposure I used a Singh-Ray 3-stop, hard edge, Split Neutral Density Filter to compensate for the dynamic range of light in the image. The focus brackets were made of the foreground. mid-ground, and background and then combined in Helicon Focus to create one image. This was taken into Photoshop for final finishing and conversion to Black and White.

Thanks for stopping by today.

Hozógo nasádo (Navajo): Walk in Beauty

Bob

Giant Agave and Moonrise – Big Bend National Park

Adobe Lightroom, Big Bend, Big Bend National Park, Desert, Landscape, Landscape Photography, National Parks, Singh-Ray Filters, Sony α900, Split Neutral Density Filters, sunset, Texas, Twilight Photography, Uncategorized 6 Responses »

Mar 312011

Giant Agave and Moonrise, Big Bend National Park. Shot with a Sony α900 and a Zeiss 24-70mm lens at 24mm. Image exposed at ISO 100 at f14 for 3 seconds.

Hi everyone and welcome to today’s post. Today in beautiful West Virginia it is cold and rainy. It seems that spring is just around the corner. It has been that way though for the entire month of March. North of us they are getting snow and the folks living there probably feel the same way I do. A dose of warm weather filled with vitamin enriched sunshine would go a long way towards lifting winters stranglehold.

Today’s image is from a place where the weather seemed to be near perfect all the time. I know Big Bend can have some severe weather but for one perfect week I was able to bask in the park’s beautiful landscape and balmy temperatures. This is a twilight shot of a giant agave set against the rugged Chisos Mountains. At nearly four and a half feet tall this is one of the biggest agave plants I have ever seen. It was just huge. The interesting part about this image is that somehow I managed to pre-compose the shot in my mind. I knew we would be shooting with the Chisos range as a backdrop and I just imagined finding an agave that I could frame against the mountains. We already knew we would have a full moon rise and the trick would be to bring all the elements together in the final shot. I started with a series of much tighter shots but moved back to include more of the landscape. The moon rose on cue and a wonderful cloud drifted by as I tripped the shutter.

In order to gain some exposure latitude I used a Singh-Ray 3-stop soft Split Neutral Density filter to hold back the sky. In addition when I shoot in twilight I like to drop the white balance down to around 4700 to 4800K to accentuate the cooler blue tones in the sky. The RAW image was processed in Lightroom and finished in Photoshop.

Thanks for stopping by today.

Hozógo nasádo (Navajo): Walk in Beauty

Bob